6 weeks!

Austin has been in this world for 6 weeks now!  I had my 6 week check-up this week and I took Austin with me.  I have a clean bill of health and am cleared for ALL activities.  I am excited to get running again!  I have lost 40 pounds, which he found pretty impressive because most women he sees only lose 20!  I am hoping to lose 40 more pounds to be back to my original weight by Austin's 1st birthday.  The next pregnancy, I will definitely be more careful about my weight gain and know that I should be careful what I eat even with morning sickness that lasted 20 weeks!!!!!  I call it "Body by Austin" and it was worth it.  Austin was sleeping when we arrived at the doctor's office.  As soon as Dr. Fleming arrived in the room and began to talk, Austin woke up!  When Dr. Fleming assured him that he was not going to put him back, Austin calmed down.  Dr. Fleming did hold Austin too.  :)

Austin is starting to smile at us when we smile at him and he is "talking" too!  He has great control with his neck and is doing well with tummy time.  We have gotten on a schedule too.  He eats every 3 hours during the day and we have made it to 5 to 6 hours at night.  In order for him to take a nap during the day, we have to cover his eyes.  He is so afraid that he is going to miss something.  My mom said that I was the same way!  She actually gave me what we used to call a "nighty night" to use with Austin.  They work quite well.  He is usually asleep within a few minutes of covering his eyes.   

I had a literacy conference to attend this week as well so I can keep up on all the trends in reading and writing!  My mom came to watch Austin for those 3 days and am so thankful that she was able to come and take care of my baby! Boy, did they have fun!  :)  I had to pump during the day, which was pretty interesting.  I had to go out to the car and pump.  I thought I was pretty discreet, until I saw the lawn mowing guy gave me a funny look as I was fixing my shirt!  Oops!  What an adventure motherhood is, but I am glad to be continuing with breastfeeding!   

I'll leave you with a little video of Austin talking and sort of smiling!

Doctor's Visit and a Friend!

Austin had his checkup today.  He is doing great!  He is really growing, growing, growing!  He is determined to be tall like his daddy!

He is now 22.5 inches long and that puts him at the 73 percentile.  He is 11 pounds (71%)!!! That is so amazing because the hospital was concerned with weight loss... we showed them! :)  His head is 15.5 inches which puts him at the 67 percentile.  The doctor was very pleased with his progress.  I was looking at my growth when I was his age and I was 10 pounds 4 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long... it would be interesting to see what his Daddy weighed and measured.  (Deb... do you know or remember???)

Here is a pose that reminds Scott and I of the song by LMFAO "Sexy and I Know It", but instead Austin is saying: I'm cute and I know it... I work out!  He just gets cuter every day!

We also had a visit from Carrie and her daughter Zoe.  She used to teach with me at Fatima.  It was nice to have a little play date for Austin.  They are exactly a month apart.  Zoe was born on April 15.  Austin seemed to enjoy her company and I enjoyed Carrie's adult conversation and "mom" talk.  It's fun to swap stories about motherhood.  I hope to get together again.

Austin was rolling into Zoe and trying to touch her.  She would do the same thing back to him! I think he was confused as to why there were so many hands in his face! So cute.

Playtime!!!

Today, Austin had lots of fun learning to play.  He started to hit the hanging toys on his bouncy seat.  It was fun to watch his face as he concentrated on hitting the different animals.  I love watching Austin learn new things each day.  :)  It makes being a mom great!  We went for a walk today and also did tummy time.  He had a pretty fun day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zlygj484gY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRaLDb_3WM

5 weeks

5 weeks old today!  Austin is such a happy boy. He is smiling more and more.  He is also starting to play with his toys.  He will touch them and make them move as well as grab a hold of a few of them.  We had lots of fun in the pack in play today.  Austin was kicking and moving his arms playing with the Hungry Caterpillar and the links.  He even made a few noises!  We also did the vacuum test while Austin was sleeping in his swing.  He passed and didn't even wake up!!! Mickey and Simba however immediately ran out of the room. They are not as brave as Austin I guess.  :)

Simba wanted to play too!

What a trooper!

Mickey helping with the 5 week photo shoot! :)

Falling Ants!!!!

Here is a funny story...

We were enjoying a nice evening after dinner, just relaxing.  Scott was in the office playing a computer game.  I was nursing Austin on the couch, so relaxed.  All of a sudden, something fell on me from the ceiling.  It was big, black, and had legs.  It landed on my chest!  I screamed.  Now, when I said that I screamed, I mean it was a terrifying, death defying scream. I let out another screech.  Did I mention that I don't do well with bugs on me?  I mean this is the girl that refused to go in my super, awesome tree house because of bugs.  I am getting better though!  Scott ran out because he thought that I had dropped Austin.  Nope, it was just an ant.  Scott was kind of mad because he was so startled and freaked out thinking worst case scenario.  He finally helped me get the ant off of me!  Meanwhile, Austin was still feeding and didn't seemed bothered by the ant or my LOUD screaming.  I was laughing... Scott still needed time to think that this moment was funny.  

                                               

Happy First Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my hubby and great dad to my son! I know Austin will turn out to be a great man like him. I also want to say Happy Father's Day to my awesome dad who has done A LOT of things for both Scott and I. We are very thankful for him. He is such a great man and can only hope that Austin turns out like him.  My father-in-law is another great man in Austin's life.  We are thankful for all you do as well.  Happy Father's Day to him too! :)  Austin has so many great men to look up to.  Wow, we are so lucky!

For Father's Day, we had a pretty relaxed day.  We had to travel back home today.  Austin did well traveling to Grand Rapids and on the way back to Jackson!  This is a good sign for our vacation up north! :)
Scott got some tools from his parents and from my parents.  He is really collecting a lot of tools and he is so excited to get started on some projects that are needed for our yard... like moving the fence and building a deck.  We will have a busy summer!  Austin got him a few homemade things along with the jigsaw that Scott got as an early present.

Daddy and his little man!

On the way home, we stopped in Portland to visit with Father Larry.  He is a priest who is a close family friend of the Engemann's.  He used to be the priest at St. John Vianney.  :)  He made me realize once again how precious of a gift Austin is.  God chose us to be his parents!  How amazing... I only hope that Austin will be a servant of God and continue to be a follower of Christ!  :)

Having a heart to hear with Father Larry

Mickey was totally cute on the way home and was relaxing/ watching over his little brother!  It melted my heart!  He is such a great dog!  Austin and Mickey are going to have so much fun playing together in the future.  Hopefully Austin is nice and doesn't pull Mickey's fur too many times!

Baptism!

Austin was baptized tonight!  He received this wonderful sacrament at St. John Vianney with Father Luis.  His Godmommy and Jason came for the day to hang out and we went to the mall to kill some time.  Austin was such a trooper all day.

Austin did not even cry when the Holy water was poured over him.  We are thinking it was because it was extremely hot and it cooled him down.  He met so many new people who were anxiously awaiting his arrival.  Thank you to our family and friends who could witness this special event with us.  It meant a lot to us to have you there!  Let's see who all came:  Grandma and Grandpa Fairbairn, Grandma and Grandpa Engemann, Great Grandma Engemann, Aunt Maryjo, "Aunt" Katy, Uncle Arvid, Aunt Karen, Tobby Smith who was the Godfather, Marybeth Smith, Kayla, Preston, and Logan (Tobby and Marybeth's kids), Becky who was the Godmother, and Jason.  

After his baptism we headed to Grandma's house to celebrate with food and cupcakes.  It was fun and even more people came to visit like Aunt Leah, Uncle Dug, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Wendy!  Austin received many great gifts too.  We are so blessed as a family.  He got his own bible that he will be able to take to church with him when he gets older from Grandma and Grandpa Fairbairn and a pretty Catholic prayer book.  I have already read it to him and it lulls him to sleep.  His godmother got him a prayer book too.  He loves this as well.  She also got him a beautiful frame.  I love it!  Tobby's family got him a wooden rosary (so cool), a Veggie Tales sing a-long dvd (can't wait to play this!), and a book on manners from Veggie Tales.  He got a gift card to Target from Arvid and Karen, I wonder what he'll choose! :)  Wendy got us a stepping stone kit so we can put his hand prints  and footprints.  It will be a wonderful keepsake.  It will be interesting to actually get his footprints and hand prints.  We made Daddy a father's day present with hand prints and it was nearly impossible to get a good print!  Oh well, we'll try it!

Austin was so well behaved today and he was held by so many different people.  Scott and I are so blessed to have a happy baby and not to mention cute! :)

1 month old!

Well Austin is 1 month old today!  Time is sure flying by, but I am enjoying every minute of it.  I love to cuddle with my son every day!  It is so much fun to see him grow.  He is moving more and more each day.  Austin is also grinning more and more.  He follows us and really focuses on us now.  His appointment is next Friday so it will be interesting to know his stats.  We did a couple of our own measurements.  He weighs about 10 pounds and is 23 1/2 inches long!  We'll see how accurate we are.  :)

Tomorrow, we have Austin's baptism so we are making our first road trip to Grand Rapids. I am excited to see how Austin does in the car for that amount of time.  It is a mini trial run for our vacation up north for the 4th of July.  I am so excited to go on a vacation!

We were all ready and the car loaded up when we realized that the cat couldn't be found anywhere!!!  In a moment of panic, we had thought that he had escaped outside while we were bringing loads of stuff out to the car.  We definitely need a bigger vehicle because we travel with even more stuff now that we have Austin!  So we were desperately using all of our tricks to get Simba to come out of hiding... Pinky and food! Scott thought he had heard Simba's collar so we were super quiet!  Sure enough we heard his collar in the guest room.  The only problem was we couldn't see Simba anywhere!  Scott looked under the bed... Simba wasn't there.  Scott saw some movement when he looked up.  Simba was IN the box spring!  There was a hole in the bottom and good ole Simba crawled in and had some fun.  Of course he would not come out the easy way!  Scott had to reach into the hole and grab him.  It is true Holly & Scott fashion for our weekend to start this way! :)  Then we were off to Grand Rapids... hopefully our trip is slightly smoother.  I do feel bad for Mickey who has lost a lot of "real estate" in the car.  Instead of a full seat, he gets 1/3 of his space.  Oh little brothers!

"I am not sure about all of this traveling stuff, but to Grandma's we go!" - Austin

"Yes Hunny, we need a van... I can't believe I admitted that!"  - Scott

4 weeks!!

On Friday, our Austin will be 1 month old!  He has gotten so much bigger.  He is still a cuddle bug and loves to lay on our chest scrunched up like a small frog!  He tries so hard to get as close to your neck as possible.  Pushing with his legs, he inches up.  That is how we think he rubbed the front part of his hair off.  He is going a little bald, but is still a cutie pie in my book.  He has squishy lips when he sleeps.  Austin is getting better and better with his neck control. He finally follows us with his eyes as we move from him.  :)  He loves to listen to music and stare at lights.  He also really likes mirrors.

This week has been really busy.  We celebrated Father's Day early because Scott wanted to build a bunny hutch and I had gotten him a circular saw.  I wanted him to be able to use his new toy on his first big lumber project at our house.  We also wanted to celebrate early because on Saturday, Austin will be baptized in Grand Rapids.  This will be his first big trip!  Lots of people are waiting to meet our little guy or want to see him again and hold him again of course. Don't worry, Austin made Daddy some other things to give Daddy on the actual Father's Day!  I can't believe Scott is a Daddy.  He is a great one! Here are some pictures of Scott on "Father's Day":

Here is the saw actually being used!  Scott's parents came down for the day to help with the bunny hutch and to fix the baptism outfit.  Austin was hungry the whole time, so I was not as social as I would have liked... but he is a growing boy trying to get tall like his Daddy!  

 Daddy practicing safety! :)

Austin came to school with Mommy all week.  He was a real trooper as I cleaned and straightened my room out for summer.  "Auntie" Liz watched him and even changed some diapers!  It was really helpful as I got a lot of work done.  My classroom is all closed up for the summer and ready to be decorated for next year.  I always get excited for a new year.  I am still thinking of a new theme... I'm thinking about 2nd Grade Rocks with a rockstar theme or a Hollywood theme.  I have time to make my decision.  :)  

What a trooper!  

Here is to a great summer!  Scott and I are ready to embark on our journey of being new parents!  We have enjoyed the ride so far.